Business Strategy and Objectives of British Airline

This assignment provides an in-depth analysis of the business strategy and objectives of British Airline. The study reveals that the airline industry is experiencing high growth, with many leading organizations in the UK providing better services to customers. British Airline is one such organization, competing with other companies in the market. To enhance its market share, it is recommended that the company focus on marketing strategies and consider recent changes such as technological developments. The assignment also discusses the importance of setting long-term goals and objectives for managers and leaders of organizations.

BUSINESS ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction of chosen organization and its competitors ...........................................................1
Competitive advantage................................................................................................................2
Aspects related to competitive advantage...................................................................................3
Factors that makes this organisation different from others.........................................................5
Suggestions that help to succeed.................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business Essential is the element that is necessary for every organisation and
needed to be focused on various sectors as finance management, employment and
capital. When an individual wants to start a business then there are many factors that
are required to consider in their planning. These are considered to deliver key
knowledge to staff to improve the profession and analyse the hurdle coming in the
growth of business. British Airways is a leading United Kingdom premium segment
airlines which has increased it's share kin the market in the last decade. The airline
targets to get 15% capital return with the profit of 12-15% in general. They have focus
on standard service, enhanced technical services as well as earn margin at the same
time. the company use great business strategy to earn loyal costumers and for the
branding of the company (Arasti, Zandi and Talebi, 2012). In the present report, there is
an explanation related to major competitors of this organisation, competitive advantage
of this company in respect of other businesses in similar industry and its responses in
the market. Furthermore, various concepts related to supply chain management,
pricing, value of brand, marketing and Human resource management are also
demonstrated here.
TASK
Introduction of chosen organization and its competitors
To conduct the analysis and to collect information regarding competitive
advantage of the company in market, British Airways company has been taken into
consideration. British Airways is one of the largest company in UK which was founded in
1974 and this organisation is second largest behind Easy Jet. This business firm is
based on waterside which is situated near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. In
year 2011, cited organisation merged with Lberia and created International Airlines
Group (IAG) (Brown, 2010). It is the third largest airline ground in term of revenue. This
organisation has two subsideries as BA CityFlyer and OpenSkies. It has fleet size of
273. They have slogan 'To Fly. To serve'.
Competitors of British Airways
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Competitors have vast impact over the business of a company. It is important for
the organisation to consider it effectively so that it can not affect its operation in negative
manner. There are many businesses in UK that are providing their services in similar
industry as-
 BMI Regional
 CargoLogicAir
 DHL Air UK
 Easy Jet
 Flybe
 Loganair
 Jet2
 Thomas Cook Airlines
 Titan Airways
 Eastern Airways
 Atlantic airlines
 Virgin Atlantis
 Emirates Air France
This is important for British Airways to consider their competitors policy and plan so they
can better take stand in market. These are the companies that is showing their vast
presence in same industry (Woiceshyn, 2011).
Competitive advantage
It is the concept that puts a company superior to other businesses in similar
industry. There are many factors that are recorded to secure competitive advantage in
market as highly skilled labour, geographic location, adoption of new changes,
technology, human resource management, pricing strategy etc. These aspect help the
company to secure large part of market and to take advantage of market. Furthermore,
it can be secured through providing better and effective services to client (Hair, 2015).
According to Michael Porter, there are two ways that are available that help to
secure competitive advantage in market. Cost advantage and differentiation advantage
are the two factors that are considered in this. It is the responsibility of the company to
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conduct proper analysis of market and its competitor so that they can attain better
position in market as comparison to its competitors.
In other way, competitive advantage is related to development of series of
attribute that aid the organisation to perform well in market as comparison to other
businesses. This has main goal to make the development in economy. The factors of
Market Based View theory and orientation of external market are the primary factors
that help in the performance of company. It considers different factors that arise due to
positioning strategy of this theory (Kimbell, 2011).
Aspects related to competitive advantage
There are many factors that are required to consider to secure competative
advantage. To attain better position among competitors of market, it is important to
consider following aspects as-
Supply chain
The supply chain refers to the management of flow of goods and services which
includes movement, storage of material, work in progress, and finished goods from
origin to consumption.
Supply chain structure of British Airways includes suppliers, materials
management and external customers. External suppliers include tangible and materials
e.g. Information records, raw materials, etc. Materials management includes production,
test and repair, targeting system to implement main storage levels and transportation
cost. External customer covers final output of model that to be received and contact
through other point of sales (Hsu, 2011).
Supply chain of British airways deals with some responsive issues like stock,
material management and amount annually spent to maintain stock level in comparison
to other competitors. Services that are provided in airline consider on board and
lounges. Around 50 managers are supplying 900 on-board products like passenger
amenity, convenience facilities and others.
Pricing
Pricing policy of every organization is very important from the point of view of
income generation. The pricing policies of British airways helps to gain competitive
advantage in market and allow consumers to decide the level of services that they
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require. Strategy framed by British airways offers superior quality in term of price that
helps in competing with other airlines. They maintain pricing policy so that they can
provide equal opportunity to all its customers. Here, people can buy ticket on its base
price so that they do not require to give extra value added profit to other service
provider. Economic pricing strategy is used by cited company so that they can provide
low price tickets. Premium pricing strategy is used by this company so that they can
offer their service to them who like travelling with high class benefits (Kimbell, 2011).
Brand Values
British Airways is the largest international carrier in UK with a motto to fly, to
serve. The brand value of British airways lies with their passion and vision to serve
customers. They are expertise and deliver a unique combination of technology in flying
along with service experience representing British style. The core values for British
airways are:
 To keep promises.
 To find solutions to the queries of the customers.
 To treat everyone as individuals,and to do the things properly.
Marketing
The marketing objectives of the British airways is to increase sales revenue
along with increase in awareness about services and offers, attract budget travellers
with new product and services and using new channels to attract and engage new
customers. There are many marketing techniques that are used by this company so that
they can enhance their market share and attract large number of customers. They are
providing best product in international flights and offering best services to customers.
Different marketing techniques like promotion, segmentation are adopted that help to
target new customers (Singh and Khanduja, 2012).
Human Resource
In British airways the impact of people behave with each other can be seen in the
behaviour towards its customers. The airways create an atmosphere of professionalism
as on its highest priority. The company has a big influence on the individuals by
implementing motivational theories and ensuring staff morale. The airways ensure right
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people with effective skills for the purpose of achievement of their goals.
Competitive positioning of British airways
The competitive positioning or strategy of British airways includes brand image and
brand name carrying strong identity. It has adopted the strategy of
 Setting a benchmark to be represented as a leader in the industry.
 Its franchising with other airlines.
 Eliminating competition by alliances with main competitors like Malaysia airlines,
Singapore airlines etc.
 Turning opportunities into strengths.
 Implementation of technological innovations by carrying out bookings through e-
ticketing system (Laudon and Laudon, 2011).
 Expanding growth opportunities with spreading its operational activities.
 Improving margins through new revenue streams and meeting customer needs.
 Sustaining and building leadership position.
 Becoming cost efficient and focusing on outstanding customer services.
Factors that makes this organisation different from others
Many factors are considered in the operation of this organisation that makes the
business different from other companies of similar industry. It is required for this
business to consider various elements that provide competitive advantage to this
organisation and helps to attain success in market.
Brand Credibility-
British airways gives a memorable experience to its client and earn their loyalty
toward them. They provide a very interesting customer services so that people can
attain best services while travelling. It has good reputation in industry and among the
clients. They keep surprising the customers by different plans and services inspire other
Airways (Li, Lai and Wang, 2010).
Intensive Customer Service-
Effective Customer service is the key of successful trade. British Airways has
been noticed the leading airway company in present time and they provide maximum
satisfaction to their clients. British Airways deeply understands the level of client's
outcome of their values, actions, and feelings.
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Innovative Technologies-
British Airways invested in creative features that distinguish it from others. In the
trend of Social, maximum booking are done through e-tickets systems, assigning
special meal request and service request facility. Company providing on board WIFI,
improved in-seat power and in-flight entertainment. They provide seamless and
personalised services to its users.
Terminal 5
British Airways has transferred its system In London Heathrow Terminal 5, to
cater new opportunities. Terminal 5 is registered as the state of art, decreasing long
queues, providing fast lane to Check-in and offering whole new efficient terminal with
better technology. It's new baggage system is known in worldwide as the 'creative art
example'. This technology increased innovative technical features and better customers
services (Mendling, Recker and Reijers, 2010).
Market Response-
British Airways allotted public air travel in the convenient and affordable cost.
Rich as well as middle class people can travel in airways. The public responses
positively in relation to comfort of flights and cost of tickets.
The technologies have got positive feedback, therefore, the British Airways has been
reported as one of the most innovative technology holder industry in airline industry.
Online booking, check ins, hotel, resorts and many facilities are offered by this company
that makes the organisation on positive path. They are focusing about traffic in
worldwide or mostly in east countries like India, Egypt etc.
Suggestions that help to succeed
There are many factors that are required to consider by this organisation in their
operation so that they can provide their services at large area. Many new technologies
are in force that is required to consider so that they can be more effective in competitive
era. It is important for this company to make focus on marketing actions so that they can
enhance their market share (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010). There are many
marketing ways are available that have vast impact over the users. So it is required for
them to make positive effort to adopt such ways so that they can attract large number of
customers toward them.
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They can use some of the strategy like defensive strategies, differentiation,
alliances and other strategies so that they can secure competitive advantage in market
and attain their goals and objective in effective manner. It is essential for cited company
to increase capacity of their airline. This is also important for them to provide their
services to more destinations so that they can achieve vast graph of number of
customers. It helps the company to secure competitive advantage. They should
increase area of service which has effect on British Airline and helps to attain success.
As per my opinion, it is required for manager and leaders of this organisation to set long
term goal and objectives. And it should be completed by effective implementation and
formulation of strategy in this regard (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010).
CONCLUSION
As per above study it can be concluded that the business of airline companies
are increasing on high graph. There are many leading ordinations in UK that is providing
better services to its customers. British Airline is one of them. There are many
competitor of this organisation in market and it is required for them to consider their
strategy so that they can provide better services. It is required for this company to
consider recent changes as technological developments, to make focus on marketing
strategy so that they can enhance their market share.
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REFERENCES
Book and Journals
Arasti, Z., Zandi, F. and Talebi, K., 2012. Exploring the effect of individual factors on
business failure in Iranian new established small businesses. International
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Brown, R. E., 2010. Business essentials for utility engineers. CRC press.
Hair, J. F., 2015. Essentials of business research methods. ME Sharpe.
Hsu, W., 2011. The vocabulary thresholds of business textbooks and business research
articles for EFL learners. English for Specific Purposes. 30(4). pp.247-257.
Kimbell, L., 2011. Rethinking design thinking: Part I. Design and Culture. 3(3). pp.285-
306.
Laudon, K. C. and Laudon, J.P., 2011. Essentials of management information systems.
Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Li, D., Lai, F. and Wang, J., 2010. E-business assimilation in China's international trade
firms: The technology-organization-environment framework. Journal of Global
Information Management (JGIM). 18(1). pp.39-65.
Linnenluecke, M. and Griffiths, A., 2010. Beyond adaptation: resilience for business in
light of climate change and weather extremes. Business & Society. 49(3).
pp.477-511.
Mendling, J., Recker, J. and Reijers, H.A., 2010. On the usage of labels and icons in
business process modeling. International Journal of Information System
Modeling and Design (IJISMD). 1(2). pp.40-58.
Singh, B. J. and Khanduja, D., 2012. Essentials of D-phase to secure the competitive
advantage through Six Sigma. International Journal of Business Excellence.
5(1-2). pp.35-51.
Wilson, J., 2014. Essentials of business research: A guide to doing your research
project. Sage.
Woiceshyn, J., 2011. A model for ethical decision making in business: Reasoning,
intuition, and rational moral principles. Journal of business Ethics. 104(3).
pp.311-323.
Online
Our strategy and objectives, 2017. [Online] . Available through:
<https://www.britishairways.com/cms/global/microsites/ba_reports0910/pdfs/
Strategy.pdf>. [Accessed on 20th July, 2017].
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